Rest in peace

File:'Requiescat', oil on canvas painting by Briton Rivière, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales.jpg

Requiescat, oil on canvas painting by Briton Rivière, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Although commonly associated with Catholicism and Christianity, the phrase is also used in Judaism. This ancient Latin inscription from 688/689 AD begins with a Latin version of the phrase. Notice the menorah in the upper left corner and the Hebrew calendar date in the lower right.

"Rest in peace" (Latin: Requiescat in pace) is a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal rest and peace to someone who has died. The expression typically appears on headstones, often abbreviated as "RIP". The phrase or acronym is commonly found on the grave of Catholics, as it is derived from the burial service of the Catholic Church, in which the following prayer is said at the commencement and conclusion:

Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace.

In English, it is rendered as

May his soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God's mercy rest in peace.

To satisfy a vogue for rhyming couplets on tombstones, the phrase has been parsed as:

Requiescat
in pace

Originally in Hebrew in Isaiah (57, 2):

...will come in peace, and they will rest in their beds, he who goes straightforward.

The verse from Isaiah has been found inscribed in Hebrew on gravestones dating from the 1st century BC, in the graveyard of Bet Shearim. This verse speaks of the righteous person who died because he could not stand the evil surrounding him. A recapture of these words, read as "come and rest in peace," has been transferred to the ancient Talmudic prayers, in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic of the 3rd century AD. It is used to this day in traditional Jewish ceremonies.

The phrase in English was not found on tombstones before the eighth century. It became common on the tombs of Catholics in the 18th century, for whom it was a prayerful request that their soul should find peace in the afterlife. When the phrase became conventional, the absence of a reference to the soul led people to suppose that it was the physical body that was enjoined to lie peacefully in the grave. This is associated with the Catholic doctrine of the particular judgment; that is, that the soul is parted from the body upon death, but that the soul and the body will be reunited on Judgment Day.

Other variations include “Requiescat in pace et in amore” for "May she rest in peace and love", “Requiescat in pace et in amore” and “In pace requiescat et in amore”. The word order is variable because Latin syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by word order. However, if “Rest in peace” is used in an imperative mood, it would be “Requiesce in pace” (acronym R.I.P.) in the second person singular, or “Requiescite in pace” in the second person plural.

• 
  Excerpt from gravestone in Święciechowa, showing R.i.p
• 
  This cross from 1720 bears the complete Latin phrase
• 
  This funerary tablet from 525 CE begins with the phrase
• 
  The phrase is used in languages other than Latin and English and by non-Catholics. This grave inscription in a Lutheran cemetery translates to 'Rest in Peace' from the local Cieszyn Silesian Dialect.

Linguistic Analogs

Phrases in other languages:

• Turkish: "Huzur içinde yat"
• Spanish: "Descanse en Paz" ("DEP")
• Portuguese: "Descanse em Paz"
• ["Αναπαύσου εν ειρήνη"] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help) [Ana'pafsou en ei'rini]
• ["Ἀναπαύσου ἐν εἰρήνῃ"] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)
• Danish: "Hvil i fred"
• Icelandic: "Hvíli í friði"
• Serbian: "Počivaj u miru"
• Italian: "Riposi in pace" ("RIP")
• French: "Repose En Paix" ("REP")
• Polish: "Świętej pamięci", "Niech odpoczywa w pokoju - Amen"
• German: "Ruhe in Frieden" ("RIF")
• Dutch: "Rust in vrede"
• Slovak: "Odpočívaj v pokoji"
• Romanian: "Odihnească-se în pace"
• Swedish: "Vila i frid"
• Hungarian: "Nyugodjék békében"
• Czech: "Odpočívej v pokoji"

• ["Да упокоится с миром"] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help) [Da upo'koitsʲa s 'mirom] (Hopefully, he will be rest in peace.); "Мир праху его" [Mir 'prahu ye'go] (Peace for his ashes.); "Покойся с миром" [Po'koysʲa s 'mirom] (May you rest in peace.); "Да будет земля тебе пухом" [Da 'budʲet zem'lʲa te'be 'puhom] (Will land you down.)

(There is no main phrase for Russian language.)

• Church Slavonic language: "Црствїе Нбсное" ['Tsarsviye Nʲe'bʲesnoye] (Kingdom of Heaven (for him))
• Chinese: "安息"